JoeGKushner
Adventurer
City of Peril
Written by Ed Stark
Maps by Jason Engle
$14.95
ISBN: 9780786943203
Published by Wizards of the Coast
www.wizards.com/dnd
One thing I can never get enough of, are maps. One thing I can get enough of, are villages. With that in mind, I was cautious when I picked up City of Peril. This is another of the booklets that have a selling point of some great professional art. Unlike the tiles though, these are static images.
Looking at the back of the booklet, I notice that there’s no recommended character level. Yeah! Yeah to market this puppy I tell you. Nothing like letting the buyer know before hand what he’s getting into! I love stuff like that. It’s like the randomness of miniatures all over again. Looking at the interior however, I can see why in this one particular case that they may have went that way. It’s a group of several encounters for various levels of the party that the GM can add to his standard campaign. This makes this one of the most useful of the various little map packs that I’ve purchased. Something that doesn’t pretend to be a dungeon or some small encounters strung together but can be quickly added to a campaign.
The interior of the cover shows an overview of the four maps. The maps are front and back so it’s two separate sets of map. We have the Griffon’s Nest Inn, Ratfang Sewers, Thieves’ Quarter, and Market Square. For me, these are about the best set of maps WoTC could’ve done. We get an inn, sewers, and a market. I’m not as impressed by the thieves quarter because it’s not really a generic local that I’ll be using often. The rest? Gold. The inn has two levels and a basement. The sewers have a nice set up to them. The market has enough to keep you busy for a while. All the art done by Jason Engle is great too look at. Mostly in ‘neutral’ colors and easy on the eyes. The interior shows where things are and matches up with the book.
Each section starts with an ECL list. It starts with Shakedown where the party gets to cross blades with some bugbear thugs. In terms of game stats, m’eh. Abbreviated format with CR listed next to name, hit points showing no dice type (for example, the bugbears are shown with 40 hit points with 3 hit dice but they’ve also got a level of barbarian.) I’m not that good with stats but the bugbears have a +5 strength bonus, a bab of 3, and weapon focus. So that should be 9 but it’s listed as +10. Like I said, maybe I’m missing something. Not enough for me to worry too much about though. Heck, at least the bugbears mention they have a level of barbarian. Goblin Snippers? Nope. The Shadowdancer latter on? 12 levels of Human Shadowdancer. Heck, didn’t know that was a core class. It strikes me as lazy but hey, it’s nothing new.
One of the nice things about the encounters though, is that there are little side bars scattered throughout the product that give you some ideas on how to string the events into a more cohesive whole. Reminds me of the old 2nd ed product, A Hero’s Tale where the Chaos Bell is starting up all sorts of weird things and the players get involved until they finally reach a resolution.
The product has some great maps, some interesting encounters, some questionable game stats. It’s more modular than most of the products in the line and should provide a few quick ‘random’ encounters or if the GM desires, some background to any city he chooses to use it in.
Written by Ed Stark
Maps by Jason Engle
$14.95
ISBN: 9780786943203
Published by Wizards of the Coast
www.wizards.com/dnd
One thing I can never get enough of, are maps. One thing I can get enough of, are villages. With that in mind, I was cautious when I picked up City of Peril. This is another of the booklets that have a selling point of some great professional art. Unlike the tiles though, these are static images.
Looking at the back of the booklet, I notice that there’s no recommended character level. Yeah! Yeah to market this puppy I tell you. Nothing like letting the buyer know before hand what he’s getting into! I love stuff like that. It’s like the randomness of miniatures all over again. Looking at the interior however, I can see why in this one particular case that they may have went that way. It’s a group of several encounters for various levels of the party that the GM can add to his standard campaign. This makes this one of the most useful of the various little map packs that I’ve purchased. Something that doesn’t pretend to be a dungeon or some small encounters strung together but can be quickly added to a campaign.
The interior of the cover shows an overview of the four maps. The maps are front and back so it’s two separate sets of map. We have the Griffon’s Nest Inn, Ratfang Sewers, Thieves’ Quarter, and Market Square. For me, these are about the best set of maps WoTC could’ve done. We get an inn, sewers, and a market. I’m not as impressed by the thieves quarter because it’s not really a generic local that I’ll be using often. The rest? Gold. The inn has two levels and a basement. The sewers have a nice set up to them. The market has enough to keep you busy for a while. All the art done by Jason Engle is great too look at. Mostly in ‘neutral’ colors and easy on the eyes. The interior shows where things are and matches up with the book.
Each section starts with an ECL list. It starts with Shakedown where the party gets to cross blades with some bugbear thugs. In terms of game stats, m’eh. Abbreviated format with CR listed next to name, hit points showing no dice type (for example, the bugbears are shown with 40 hit points with 3 hit dice but they’ve also got a level of barbarian.) I’m not that good with stats but the bugbears have a +5 strength bonus, a bab of 3, and weapon focus. So that should be 9 but it’s listed as +10. Like I said, maybe I’m missing something. Not enough for me to worry too much about though. Heck, at least the bugbears mention they have a level of barbarian. Goblin Snippers? Nope. The Shadowdancer latter on? 12 levels of Human Shadowdancer. Heck, didn’t know that was a core class. It strikes me as lazy but hey, it’s nothing new.
One of the nice things about the encounters though, is that there are little side bars scattered throughout the product that give you some ideas on how to string the events into a more cohesive whole. Reminds me of the old 2nd ed product, A Hero’s Tale where the Chaos Bell is starting up all sorts of weird things and the players get involved until they finally reach a resolution.
The product has some great maps, some interesting encounters, some questionable game stats. It’s more modular than most of the products in the line and should provide a few quick ‘random’ encounters or if the GM desires, some background to any city he chooses to use it in.
